December 21, 2018

Posted on December 20, 2018

I don’t like to be delayed. I was running a little late one day for a meeting and wouldn’t you know it but a train decided to come through Fergus Falls just before I got to the train tracks. I was delayed. When I go to a restaurant I don’t want to have to wait thirty minutes for my food to be brought to me. I really dislike standing in line at customer service waiting to return an item. Ugh delayed again:( It also irks me when I have waited in a line to checkout and I get to the cashier and of course the machine has run out of paper so I am delayed while the clerk fiddles with getting the roll into the machine. And then of course in the summer there is always road construction delay and in the winter there are flight cancellations and blizzard delays.

I see delay as a bad thing but God has a very different view of it.

John 11:4–7 (NLT) — 4 But when Jesus heard about it he said, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.” 5 So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, 6 he stayed where he was for the next two days. 7 Finally, he said to his disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.”

Mary and Martha’s pray was delayed. Jesus didn’t come right away when they called and because of the delay Lazarus died. Don’t you just hate it when your prayers aren’t answered right away? But Jesus said that the delay was so that the He would receive glory from the delay. So if Jesus had come right away and healed Lazarus it wouldn’t have had quite the impact as raising Lazarus from the dead had. When people saw the dead man walk they believed in Jesus and he got greater glory out of it.

Perhaps if I would remember that delays have a way of bringing greater glory to God I would look forward to being delayed:) When my impatience turns to joy I guess that would bring greater glory to God. When frustration turns into gratefulness that would certainly bring greater glory to God. And when needing to be instantly gratified turns into self-control, well you can imagine how much glory that brings to God. People are watching so why not let them see the greater glory for God!

John 11:40 (NLT) — 40 Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe?”

We will and others will if we believe that delays can be God ordained.